Contini

Mila (1910-1993). Italian writer and journalist, born in Milan. In 1938, she was appointed director of Grazia, a position she left during the war. Starting in 1945, she worked with Il Corriere Lombardo, La Lettura, L’Illustrazione Italiana, and La Prealpina. Later, she was a correspondent for the weeklies Tempo, Gente, and Oggi. She was director of the Italian edition of Marie Claire from 1958 to 1960, and of the TV program Personalità, presented as a women’s weekly, from 1960 to ’64. She wrote La Moda nei Secoli (Mondadori, 1961); 5000 Years of Fashion (Mondadori, 1976), which was translated into 12 languages, including Russian and Japanese; Maria José, Regina Sconosciuta; a medical encyclopedia for the family; and several books on gastronomy. The president of the Moda Mare award in Cefalù, and a member of several juries, she was president of the International Press Association for Women and the Family and of the Soroptimist Club of Varese. Very keen on sports, in 1928 she was one of the first women to obtain a driver’s license, passing her test at the wheel of an Isotta Fraschini.